Facebook is automatically linking users in areas affected by the UK floods to volunteers who can help.

The feature arose out of the UK #floodhack held by the cabinet office and Tech City UK on Sunday. At the event, developers from Facebook, as well as Google, Twitter and Microsoft, were provided with data from the Environment Agency on a short-term license, and spent eight hours hacking together software that would help the public.

Facebook’s feature, developed over the course of the day, is the first to be given a fully fledged release. The site uses information provided by users as to where their hometown is, and then offers those in affected areas a link to floodvolunteers.co.uk.

“At Floodhack, it was clear that the biggest challenge was getting people who need help connecting to people who can help,” said Alec Muffett, one of the Facebook engineers behind the feature. “Since Facebook reaches so many people in the affected areas, my colleague Pieter and I thought a newsfeed message to direct people to the Flood Volunteer website would be a simple way to help get help to people in need.”

The service will be implemented gradually over the next few days, to ensure that Flood Volunteers can manage the likely surge in traffic and demand, Facebook says. But the company is not keeping it as a permanent feature.

“We are seeing this as a really good opportunity to let people know, at a moment of maximum national crisis, about a new resource,” said Facebook’s UK & Ireland Policy Director Simon Milner. Access to the Environment Agency data will be closed off in May, when the open government license runs out, preventing Facebook from running the feature indefinitely.

But Milner says the company will pay close attention to the results of the trial. “The experience of doing this will be very helpful in learning about we can respond to natural disasters”, he added.

Facebook has been praised for the speed with which it has turned around the feature. “It’s wonderful news that Tech City UK’s FloodHack inspired the developer community to come together – and that engineers at Facebook have gone on to develop such a practical, effective solution,” said Tech City UK’s chief executive, Gerard Grech.

As well as Facebook, energy comparison site Uswitch has released its project from the Floodhack day. The “Who do I call when there’s a power cut?” site lets users enter their postcode and find contact details for the company responsible for delivering their energy and gas – frequently not the same as the company they pay their bills to.